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Nidec confirmed that attackers stole documents and files from Nidec Precision Vietnam Corporation (NPCV), demanded a ransom, and later published some of the material on a leak site after the company refused to pay. The incident affected a Vietnam-based Nidec Precision entity—not, based on the company’s reported findings, Nidec Corporation’s entire global network.
The October 2024 disclosure also needs careful wording: the NPCV case involved unauthorized access, data theft and extortion. It should not be automatically treated as the same file-encrypting ransomware incident separately reported at Nidec Instruments.
What happened at Nidec?
On August 5, 2024, Nidec Precision received a message from an external criminal group claiming responsibility for an intrusion and demanding a ransom. Nidec said the attackers had accessed an NPCV server and stolen documents and files.
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After Nidec refused to pay, the group posted some of the stolen information on a leak site. Nidec’s October 17 report said that third parties could download additional information published on September 7 and September 9.
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Nidec began consulting an outside security expert on August 6 and started an investigation. NPCV reported the matter to Vietnamese police on August 15 and to Vietnam’s Cybersecurity and Hi-tech Crime Prevention Division on September 6.
Nidec published its first report on August 12 and a follow-up investigation report on October 17. The company said it had found no further damage, such as new cyberattacks or file encryption, after the disclosure.
Read Nidec Precision’s incident report.
Which Nidec company was breached?
The affected entity was Nidec Precision Vietnam Corporation, abbreviated as NPCV. It is part of Nidec Precision, rather than evidence that every Nidec Corporation system was compromised.
Nidec said that no related damage had been confirmed at Nidec Corporation, other Nidec Corporation group companies, or other Nidec Precision group companies. That is more precise than saying the wider Nidec organization was completely unaffected: it describes the company’s findings and reporting position at that time.
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What information was stolen?
Nidec said the stolen material consisted of information stored on an NPCV server. BleepingComputer reported that Nidec’s investigation identified 50,694 stolen files, including:
- Internal documents
- Business-partner correspondence
- Green-procurement documents
- Labor-safety and health-policy materials
- Purchase orders
- Invoices and receipts
- Contracts
BleepingComputer attributed the file count and categories to its account of Nidec’s investigation. The publicly available Nidec report does not establish that the files included payment-card information, bank-account credentials or every category of personal data.
Nidec did confirm that some company information was published and accessible to third parties. However, the public reports do not establish that all—or even most—of the stolen files contained personal information.
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It was a ransomware-related extortion incident in the broad sense: criminals stole data, demanded payment and threatened or carried out publication. But the public Nidec account of the NPCV event does not describe conventional ransomware encrypting the subsidiary’s files.
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That distinction matters because Nidec reported a separate incident at Nidec Instruments, detected on May 26, 2024, in which files were encrypted and possible information leakage was investigated. The Nidec Instruments incident and the NPCV data-theft incident involved different entities and should not be combined.
Nidec’s reports on the separate incident are available in its June 10 report and July 25 report.
Who claimed responsibility?
BleepingComputer reported that the 8BASE group claimed an attack against Nidec in June 2024 and that the Everest group later published data allegedly stolen from Nidec.
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Those links should remain qualified. Nidec’s own October report referred to an “external criminal group” and did not publicly confirm 8BASE or Everest as the perpetrators in the cited statement. The groups’ claims and the alleged source of leaked data are not the same as independent forensic attribution.
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How did the attackers get access?
BleepingComputer reported that Nidec’s investigation found attackers had obtained valid VPN credentials belonging to a Nidec employee. The report does not establish how those credentials were originally compromised, so it would be inaccurate to call this a confirmed VPN software vulnerability.
Using valid credentials can allow an attacker to resemble an authorized user. It also shows why organizations need more than a password: phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, conditional access, session monitoring, rapid credential revocation and restrictions on what remote users can reach are important safeguards.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did Nidec do after the breach?
Nidec said it took several containment and response measures, including:
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- Scanning electronic terminals
- Resetting passwords
- Reviewing server-access permissions
- Suspending use of the suspected VPN device until countermeasures were implemented
- Reporting the incident to Vietnamese authorities
- Enhancing security systems
- Re-educating employees
Nidec said no related damage had been confirmed outside the affected entity and that there had been no subsequent damage such as new attacks or file encryption in the period covered by its report.
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What risk remains for employees, partners and contractors?
Even where payment-card data has not been identified, exposed business records can be useful to criminals. Purchase orders, invoices, contracts and partner correspondence may support targeted phishing, supplier impersonation, business-email compromise or fraudulent payment-change requests. These are potential risks, not confirmed consequences reported by Nidec.
People who work with Nidec or NPCV should:
- Verify unexpected invoice, bank-account or payment-instruction changes through a previously known contact method.
- Be cautious with messages claiming to contain leaked Nidec documents or breach information.
- Avoid opening unexpected attachments or signing in through links received by email.
- Reset any password reused across work and personal accounts.
- Enable phishing-resistant multifactor authentication where available.
- Report suspicious messages to the relevant company security team.
There is no evidence in the cited reports of confirmed downstream misuse of the exposed data. The safest response is heightened caution around impersonation and payment fraud, not an assumption that every Nidec customer’s personal information was leaked.
Bottom line
Nidec confirmed a data breach involving stolen and published information from Nidec Precision Vietnam Corporation. The company refused the ransom, and the available reporting identified 50,694 files in the investigation. The exact personal-data exposure and the attackers’ confirmed identity remain unclear, while Nidec reported no related damage at its parent company or other group companies.
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